sustaining bursts of motivation

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

this publication is a place for me to reflect on productivity, health and tech, and drop unique opportunities in the space right to your inbox daily. if you’re new here, sign up to tune in! 💌 

btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: sustaining bursts of motivation 🌈 

i used to be a major victim of bursts of motivation carrying my work ethic and productivity. a lot of us use the excuse of, “i don’t have the motivation to do this,” to procrastinate making progress or working towards a goal.

the problem is that motivation varies greatly — you can’t rely on motivation to reach your goals, whether it’s related to health and fitness, acing an exam, or launching a product.

what you can do with this motivation is be intentional about sustaining it. ♻️ channel motivation into forcing functions for discipline. my go-to method is setting up accountability systems/frameworks as soon as i feel a spike in motivation to spearhead a new initiative or achieve a new health goal.

this daily blog for example was an idea i had in passing and was super excited to get started. i knew this motivation to write wasn’t going to persist every single day, but i made this promise to my readers which keeps me accountable and dedicated to making progress. ✍️ my motivation doesn’t keep me writing, my discipline and the accountability does.

health and fitness is a big bucket where people rely on motivation. one random tuesday you’ll feel a burst of vigour to be more physically active and eat healthy. you’ll do a 20 minute pilates workout at home and vow to yourself to do it every single day. you already know how this one ends …

you probably won’t fulfill that vow because that “plan” was established solely off of clouded motivation. turn that vow into realistic time blocks in your calendar or quantitative, detailed goals you send to your friends as an accountability system. 🗓️ or even better, tell a mentor that you’re committing to this thing and let them know that you’ll update them on it in a month.

motivation is unreliable and inconsistent, discipline isn’t. so, as soon as you feel that burst in motivation, take some time to also think of how you’re going to sustain that energy before it fizzles out. ⚡️ 

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